When to quit

His leaving came as a surprise to everyone; he was going great and was synonymous with the company and the industry for a long time. It was like he was destined to be in that position tailor made for him. He reveled in this and loved the attention and adulation it bought. The industry acknowledged his leadership and mentoring of the minnows to help improve their well being. So when leading media and press announced his exit, it was totally unexpected and unanticipated news.

Speculation had it that he had fallen out of favor with the board; some said that he had become complacent and thus was fired. Internal politics resultant out of management shift was another rumored reason for downfall. Another said that industry challenges and cost cutting measures resulted in high profile exits; after all another CXO had recently left the company under mysterious circumstances. There was no dearth of good and vile reasons; no one however asked the CIO lest they rub a wrong chord.

Joining them at the cusp of growth and globalization the CIO had spent a long innings in the chosen company and industry. He invested significant effort which bore fruit for the company leapfrogging it and strengthening their leadership position. He created a high performance and empowered team who created success with ease. Not that the journey was a bed of roses, thorns were a plenty which he slowly weeded out and won the confidence of the enterprise and industry with his willingness to lend a helping hand.

Industry bodies and associations depended on him for thought leadership and his ability to get people together. He improved the level of participation from across companies bringing out the best to discuss and debate solutions to generic and specific issues. Awards and accolades were conferred upon him with invitations to share his strategic, pragmatic and practical views globally. It was almost like a fairy tale in which everyone lived happily ever after. That is why the news appeared improbable.

Tentative in my approach, I decided to uncover the mystery that had many in the industry wondering. I called upon the CIO and popped the question forthwith. Is everything okay ? What happened ? Why did you leave ? Was there a problem ? Where are you going ? Who is taking over ? You were doing so well ! He patiently listened to me and waited for my questions to stop which did bring me to a pause. Smiling, he then started to explain his position and the raison-de-etre behind his steps.

My journey has been great; the industry adopted me and gave me an opportunity to create new benchmarks in customer service. I took on the leadership role with help of my CEO and support from within and outside the company. Challenging conventional wisdom and fast tracking some leading initiatives gave me the requisite platform. My vendors embraced some of the new ideas and committed resources to experiment and explore. Many case studies later I was the spokesperson for what IT could do.

The journey through the recession and upswing cemented the business technology relationship to create new benchmarks. Moving from projects to impacting business outcomes was a great feeling for everyone. This partnership grew from strength to strength; for me the question was what next ? My team was on autopilot and I was on a roll, at the same time a bit restless. That is when opportunity came knocking on my door. It was once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create again from ground up; in today’s world that is a rarity.

I liked what I heard and decided to take the plunge. Leaving on a high is a great feeling when everyone is asking WHY; I did not want to be where people start asking WHY NOT. Everyone remembers champions at their high points of achievements and move on to the next winner as soon as you start faltering. I took my call and decided to take the plunge while setting into motion a process to ensure that all the effort of the teams did not go waste post my exit. I am enjoying the new role and the industry has rallied around this quickly.

Hmm, what a story, I hope I can do the same someday. Should you leave when the going is good or should you build upon past success ? I believe that this is a personal call depending on your risk appetite and the way you see your career progressing. Whether you are a creator or good at sustenance with incremental innovation will determine your calling. There is no one answer that works for everyone. It is for you to find the right opportunity or make opportunities where you are.

The Honeymoon period

I met up with a CIO who had taken up a new assignment with a new company in a different sector from his previous industry; he had just completed a little over three months in the new role. The company was known to be a market leader in the industry with highly adaptable market driven IT systems. The company was growing quickly and it was also a known fact that their IT needed revival and renewal. My friend the CIO was excited about the opportunity despite butterflies in the stomach.

Three months had brought some success and quick wins; he had faced a few uphill tasks too where success eluded his team. We started chatting about his journey thus far, his joys, setbacks, challenges, plans, opportunities, cultural fit, politics, whatever; everyone was not aligned to the vision and agenda consistently though there were only a couple of detractors who believed that in the transformation the risk outweighed the benefits; change will be disruptive agreed everyone unanimously.

He described his journey with vigor and excitement in animated tones; initial days were great with all the CXOs helping him understand the business, the challenges and opportunities, the history and way forward. His team gave him a warm welcome and fervently looked up to him to provide the much needed leadership. Down the line as he traversed the organizations width and depth, he found that there was a strong culture and pride which kept people together. He was happy to join such a company.

Within a month he had enough data to form a sketch of the company landscape and a roadmap of the journey that would demonstrate the efficacy of his understanding of the enterprise. He ran it by his team and then selectively some of the CXOs; he incorporated the feedback into his finding and tuned the plan to what the organization could take in its stride without being overtly disruptive. He also received more than adequate time to detail the plan and its execution.

In the previous week to our meeting, he had received endorsement of his strategy and plan including the long-term funding. So the excitement was understandable and shared by his team; from being in the laggards’ quadrant of IT adoption, they were on the journey to the one marked followers and he hoped to get into the “early adopters” block within two years. He also had freedom to hire his team to execute the plan; he had started connecting to his contacts to explore. Sounds too good to be true ?

What I have described is what is normally referred to as the “Honeymoon period” in any new company and assignment. Generally the length of the term varies from 30 to 90 days in which the person has it easy while learning the ropes and boundaries. This is when the individual defines the flex s/he has to assert and where s/he has to back off. Learning about the culture, people, process and politics helps in creating relationships that aid or deter the journey. Questions are not frowned at as you are learning.

A shortened honeymoon based on understanding of the priorities and result oriented actions, able to capture the proverbial low hanging fruits, builds credibility and sets a strong foundation. My friend had more or less done that with his experience, rigor and quick understanding; he made the best of the time to create a foundation and set expectations with all stakeholders. While there were a few indifferent CXOs and some sections risk averse, his confidence withdrew the negativity and insecurity.

Honeymoons however do not last forever; they are usually to set expectations. They are getting shorter with engagements prior to joining in and expectations of hitting the ground running. Gone are the days of settling into a new company and role; information availability and competitive pressures now do not provide the latitude of the past. I believe that irrespective of hierarchy and position (more so when you are towards the top of the pyramid), patience levels are low, performance benchmarks are high.

Are you up to it ?

IT, BT, whatever, does it matter ?

Almost a decade back I remember a company that after spending a large amount of money with consultants going through the whole nine yards and then some more recommended rechristening the IT department Business Technology. It was a move driven out of the aspiration to stay ahead of the crowd and differentiate. The BT group was different from Corporate IT and a few other IT groups within the enterprise; they were the elite. This was in the era when IT was just beginning to gain acceptance.

This large and diversified company was written about; the bold move spawned research papers and everyone acknowledged that the future belonged to Business Technology. Slowly over a period of time the internal customers of this group started asking the question, old wine in a new bottle still tastes the same; where is the change in attitude, delivery, partnership, innovation, all the good stuff that was promised and expected. Whatever happened to the Vision and Mission ? Interestingly the leader retained the title of CIO and not CBTO. Maybe she did not want to tell a story.

Then I met another IT leader of a successful company who gave me a twist in the story. He had named his function STT. With me lost trying to decipher the TLA, he proudly unveiled the mystery with the logic: we create solutions; they are a lot more than hardware, software and networks. However whatever we do has a common underlying Technology framework. Solutions are holistic and do not constrain the thinking process. So our team is aptly known as Solutions & Technology Team. Ahem ! Many years later the poor chap is lost in wilderness; he stressed more on the middle T than the first S.

In recent times there have been many discussions and debates on the changing role of the IT leader; some of them concluded with recommendations that the title CIO is no longer relevant and the role as it stands today will no longer exist in the next XX years (fill in whatever number you like). So, the name should be changed to reflect the new reality. Suggestions cover the entire alphabet soup with rationale based on not the CIO but the proposer’s frame of reference.

Does it matter what the function is called ? Do semantics make a difference ? Will the reality be different for the involved stakeholders depending on the nomenclature ? How much does the name contribute to reality and success ? Can an IT department transform itself with a new name ? Is a change required with every changing technology trend and business evolution (would you like to be called Chief Cloud Officer) ? I am not proposing going back to the historical EDP, but IT today represents to a large extent the sum of the parts that make us.

Success is a result of great attitude and not the other way around; I believe that individuals and leaders portray themselves based on past track record and the engagement that they are able to create. The IT team collectively mimics the behaviour of the leader. This paradigm is true for all functions and no different for IT. CIOs should stop getting distracted by these irrational and irrelevant thoughts and focus on what matters to them, their teams, their customers (internal), and their customer’s customers (external).  

After all the best measure of success is success itself.

I am a new CIO

Recent past has seen many young IT professionals make the grade and move up the hierarchy to take on the responsibility of IT Head, some also getting the coveted title of the CIO. For those who made the cut within the same company, it was new found responsibility with new peers willing to guide through the maze. The rest in new positions in new companies charting unknown waters, every swell appeared to trigger emotions of “Titanic” proportions.

One such new CIO gingerly approached for help, tips, advice, anything to help navigate shark and pirate infested courses. Going down memory lane (it was a long lane) trying to collate the thoughts across each early success and challenge, the gushing emotions had to be controlled to provide coherent thought. So we agreed to meet again and mine the memories for actionable insights that can be specifically applied and get some general good practices (almost like doing Business Intelligence, can we call this Mental Intelligence).

Is there a checklist or step-by-step approach that can be used by a new IT leader to gain success ? The answer is yes and no. Yes because there is indeed a framework that helps get started irrespective of variations across different industries or size of company; no because it is not cast in stone and needs to be adapted to the context determined by corporate culture, politics, and industry and company growth. But something is better than nothing. So here is a set of guiding principles; the list is not exhaustive due to space constraints. 

1. Listen. Understand the business, the technology, the rationale behind the decisions taken, the people involved. Take notes and validate them to ensure you have the facts captured accurately.
2. Observe. People dynamics is important to success. See how your peers and other heads interact and behave with each other. It gives you perspectives on key influencers and roadblocks
3. Ask questions. Everyone loves giving away knowledge to the “ignorant”; clarify your doubts and seek to unearth the assumptions if you are in a new industry. Gather finer nuances that make your company different.
4. Bond. Not just with your team, but also across other peers and across management layers. Be approachable and yet confident of your capability that has got you here so far.
5. Communicate. When you speak (a people language), do it in a way that you connect with others and they are able to understand you. Whether it is good or bad news, focus on the issue, not personalities.
6. Manage Expectations. As the newbie expectations will be high or none with most somewhere in between. Set realistic expectations, sometimes stretch, but never overpromise. 
7. Always meet people. Don’t wait for a problem, issue or project to meet that is transactional and does not build relations. Have a coffee with as many people as often as possible, including vendors.

 Finally if you get stuck seek help from other CIOs or even your boss. Good performers need coaches too.

 

CIO Trilogy: last brick in the wall

Recently, a respected publication’s edit piece on CIOs highlighted the enterprise’s changing expectations from a CIO. This insight was gleaned from “CIO wanted” advertisements as well as discussions with headhunters or executive search companies. Some of these headlines were on the lines of “CIO with ABC ERP implementation experience”, “Full lifecycle ERP experience is a must”, “Should have worked in discrete manufacturing”, and “Strategic CIO with operational experience reporting to CFO…”. The last one especially is a paradox!

After an oscillating experience between East Asian and Indian leaders on their perceptions of the CIO this month, changing expectations from the enterprise brings up an important question, “Is the CIO role changing subtly by taking a direction divergent from where current and future CIOs want to be?” Yet another passionate discussion revolved around enterprises hiring CIOs from outside the IT functions. This trend may be positive or negative based on your frame of reference.

Enterprises have faced challenges in the execution of large cross-functional (or high-end technology) projects. Many of these adversely impacted operations or delivered limited value commensurate to the effort. Some were possibly due to oversell by the IT organization which led to inflated expectations from these investments. However, a large number of these projects have observed no correlation to technology (as has been consistently reported by the Standish Group in their tracking of IT project success over a decade). Instead of technology, management involvement has remained the primary influencing factor in these projects. Even if it seems irrelevant at this point, the final buck for effective technology adoption stops with the CIO. Thus, this has given rise to the hypotheses that “forget the strategic part of IT, let’s get someone who can fix the operational pieces first”.

Outsourcing of the support services, changes in educational structure, and consumerization of IT has demystified the technology black box. The new workforce has grown up with technology. As a result, they are unafraid of exploring new frontiers that current set of leaders and managers in their 40s and 50s may not always be keen upon. With the continuous thrust on Business IT alignment (BITA) and many commentaries on “IT is too important for the enterprise to leave it to techies”, the new business leader is emerging from non-IT domains. More importantly, he is reasonably equipped to get started on the journey towards becoming a CIO.

The current generation of technology professionals (either CIOs or those moving towards the role) must pay heed to this new trend. As is evident, the minimal expectation is to ensure operational efficiency from all projects and meeting of baseline business expectations. Industry knowledge now supersedes technology expertise for the leader, but well rounded experience matters at the next level.

After all, if the enterprise continues to remain challenged on effective usage of technology for any reason, even if not attributable to the CIO, the role will be downgraded to the position of an operational IT manager reporting into the CFO.

Is the CIO going through an Identity crisis ?

No IT event is ever complete without discussing the evolving or changing role of the CIO. This has almost become a flogging horse; surprisingly the people engaged in discussions are consultants, academicians, vendors and also the CIOs. All of them have aired their views and opinions, all of which indicate that the CIO role is changing and the incumbent should not be a CIO, but move laterally within the enterprise. Not that other CXOs are discussing how to become CIOs !

The role of the CIO has come into existence for just about a decade now and most of the IT leaders worked hard to get to this position. The transition from EDP Manager to CIO has indeed been a dramatic change and revolution for many individuals as well as organizations. Moving from a support tag to a business enabler and now with stake on the board table, the CIO has indeed proved it beyond any doubt that s/he is a leader in her/his own right contributing in many cases a wider perspective than other CXOs with visibility and insights from the entire enterprise.

Is it that the IT leaders of today are not performing their role adequately or they are dissatisfied with the laurels bestowed upon them ? The CIO is expected to be in touch with almost every trend in technology including but not limited to hardware, networking, software applications, tools and devices, telephony and mobility, and along with all this, the business too. In business, they are expected to understand the products and services, sales and marketing, production and back office, finance and accounting, legal and administration, processes and measurement, dashboards and analytics, not to discount people management and negotiation skills. Are we somewhere expecting the CIOs to be a compendium of all the superhuman heroes rolled up into one ? I have yet to come across such expectations from any other CXO in the company, including the CEO.

So what is causing this ? It would appear that the CIOs are to a great extent fuelling this debate and my hypothesis is that having moved rapidly into a role of prominence, they now want more even though there may be no more to have in many cases. The success through the journey has created the taste of blood with no easing of the adrenalin rush. With the current level of expectations and performance, the possibility of a burnout is higher than any other outcome. Some may be able to move mountains or climb the peaks of the Himalayas, but these are and will continue to be exceptions.

If a CIO is asked the question “Are you satisfied with your current role ?”, the answer would surprise many. So what’s the predicament in being a good CIO ? Does it spell the proverbial end of the road for the IT leader ? It’s a question that cries for an answer and the CIO is expected to find the answer without consulting the wise men in the mountains. Everyone has some advice on what next thereby demeaning the role to being lower in ranking to other CXOs.

I believe that the CIO should credibly communicate the contributions towards the successful and smooth functioning of the organization. The scorecard should mention the improvements made possible with the help of IT, new customer segments served enabled by analytics, additional revenue generated through new capabilities or services, or earnings realized with efficiencies that were made possible.

So stop debating the role of the CIO and move on to consolidate the position of strength with pride that is unique to the role. Debates and views will continue to distract the IT leader towards perceivably greener pastures. Lateral movement is finally a matter of personal choice.

This blog was first published on the CIO Klub website (http://www.cioklub.in/cio_says.htm) on May 11, 2009

Where to draw a line ?

A recent conversation with another CXO, I came across an unusual observation from the lady, which lead to me rethink the question, what is indeed the role of a CIO in a company. Should it be limited to creatng technology projects based on business priorities and strategy or it should go beyond the "normal" definition towards being the "Change Agent" beyond IT.

The CIO drives change that is created with the creation and implementation of IT systems or lead by some technology deployment. Successful execution creates positive value for the company, whereas change when not managed effectively may result in technology lead expensive inefficient processes. The good CIOs do not wait for business to spell out the next system change or new initiatives, they create the need based on their appreciation of how the new solution may create value for the enterprise.

Some CIOs with dual roles, i.e. IT and another business function have lattitude in what they do and also the span of influence is larger. These individuals tend to have higher success with change as compared to technology only CIOs (with a few exceptions). As CIOs move up and sideways in the enterprise, their well rounded view of the functioning of each department and function creates many opportunities for being the "Change Agent".

During my discussion with the lady, I spelt out a few initiatives taken up by the IT organization towards creating efficiencies and adding to the bottom line (most of the initiatives had no technology), I was advised that in many companies other CXOs (respective function heads) would typically take up such initiatives and not leave it to the CIO. She also advised me that such initiatives will typically fail because of lack of ownership towards change by respective business units.

While some of the comments resonate with the past, I believe that the new age CIOs do not wait for such initiatives to be thrust upon them, but take on challenges and opportunities even if they may be disruptive to some. The success of such initiatives will ultimately depend on the CEO or the Management Board endorsing the actions of the CIO.

The future does promise to get exciting for an enterprise where empowerment is the norm and CXOs are free to constructively challenge each others domain to take performance to the next level. Afterall as Jim Collins says "Good is the enemy of Great".

The Digital Divide

I had a very interesting experience a few weeks back in a CIO conference organized by one of the leading IT publishing house which had a congregation of about 100 CIOs and 15 CXO (business and head of enterprise). The theme of the conference revolved around the challenges faced by the CXO and the CXO (IT) in leading through technology driven innovation. The experience was interesting as my Sales & Marketing Head was invited as a subject matter expert and held 2 sessions that were well attended.

Since this was a first for him to be called to speak in an IT conference, he was spellbound by many a facets of a typical CIO who debated, discussed, challenged and learned through aggressive interaction within the group as well as the invited CXOs. The breadth of technology solutions on display by the sponsoring IT companies gave him a perspective of cutting edge possibilities and application to business.

All our interactions in the Management Team meetings and recommendations that were endlessly debated and a few that never got off the ground created a great flashback. To him it was a revelation of sorts to see industry peers seek advice on challenges and possibilities within their organizations.

What is the point I am trying to put across ? Well, for our CXOs to get a real perspective of the talent that they possess and for them to respect you as a CIO and your views, it is important for them to be exposed to your peers and the industry at large. IT conferences offer one such opportunity that you should effectively use to your advantage. You don't want them to realize your true potential after you have decided to seek greener pastures either out of frustration or because its kind of end of the road where you currently are.

Have you attempted to get your CXOs to participate in any IT event ? Give it an earnest attempt and once you succeed, success will follow internally too. Go ahead, what are you waiting for !!